The Fine Tuner ↓

Pages

Saturday, 13 June 2015

Here's my own perfect version of the Rebel Heart album by Madonna. I've included three tracks not on the original album and have omitted quite a few others.

I've added in 'Queen' - one of my favourite Madonna tracks reminiscent of Pet Shop Boys 'Behaviour' era. Have a listen to the lyrics and decide what you think it's about. 'Queen' would have finished the album perfectly, following on from the 'DJ Yiannis Strings Intro Mix' of 'Ghosttown' which I'm including as a late album reprise. I am at a loss as to why 'Queen' wasn't included on one of the three versions of the actual album.

I've also added in 'Never Let You Go' - a leaked demo from the album which is another gem that should have been included over the likes of 'Holy Water', 'Sex' or the awful 'Autotune Baby'.

The only thing that would have made the album even more perfect IMHO would have been a completed version of the Avicii demo of the title track which was headed to be far superior to the official version that was actually included.

I've included links to the three additional tracks (and the demo of 'Rebel Heart') below.

Sunday, 25 May 2014

Keeping it French after The Penelopes Remix of "Just Like Heaven" this is the Monsieur Adi Remix of discolicious track "Blow" from Beyonce's eponymous 2013 album. Blow has prestigious pop parentage being written by Beyonce with Pharrell Williams, James Fauntleroy, Timbaland, J-Roc and Justin Timberlake.

This is The Penelopes Remix of The Cure's "Just Like Heaven". The Penelopes are London based indie-pop / electronic band Axel Basquiat and Vincent T. - originally from Paris - they are the creators of 'multi-layered, sparkly indie-pop'. "Just Like Heaven" was originally released in 1987 as the third single from The Cure's Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me album.

Wednesday, 21 May 2014

Sweden's Opolopo has treated us to a reworked version of "Street Life" by Crusaders feat. Randy Crawford. The Opolopo Rebounce is... 'Another rebounce for my own DJ:ing pleasure. A bit of cut and paste plus new synth and bass beats.' as per the DJ's soundcloud page. 'OPOLOPO is Yoruban for "plenty", a word that best exemplifies the diversity of this musician, dj, remixer, composer and production wizard's voyage! Whether it's funk, boogie, house, or soul, his compositions and productions are always uncompromising with a steady gaze on the horizon and a quick glance in the rear-view mirror.'

Love this track "Insincerely Yours" from Lily Allen's new album Sheezus. In fact the whole album's pretty damn good. Here's The Independent's review of Sheezus...

Lily Allen 'Sheezus' album review: Lily takes no prisoners in return to the spotlight.

4/5

by Andy Gill 27th April, 2014

Lily’s back, and this time it’s personal. But then, it always has been: few modern pop stars have engaged with the sweet ’n’ sour of today’s celebrity culture quite as eagerly as she has, never knowingly turning the other cheek, or turning down a verbal scrap.

Small wonder, then, that she should open her comeback album with the line “Don’t let my kids watch me when I get in the ring” – parental guidance designed, one suspects, to protect her offspring from seeing how artfully she slices up opponents.

“Sheezus”, the track in question, seems designed to offend as many people as possible in four minutes. Christians will surely demur at the titular notion of a female Jesus, especially when she slips into the sing-song section about “periods, we all get periods”. And bitch-slap sneers at supposed peers like “boring” Katy Perry and Lady Gaga (sardonically dismissed as “dying for her art, so really she’s a martyr”) should annoy several potential fanbases. Not that Lily’s bothered – rubbing in the disdain, the ingenious backing track is built from her programmed ha-ha-has.

It’s a brilliant opener, whose snarky tone is taken up later in “Insincerely Yours”, a damning sideswipe at celebrity culture. Over a slinky shuffle that’s a throwback to classic California G-funk, she speaks for all right-thinking people by admitting: “I don’t give a damn about your Instagram, your lovely house or your ugly kids.” To which, of course, one might well say, “right back at ya, Lily”, when she starts going on about her hubby’s staying-power in “L8 CMMR”, or lapsing into new-mum whingeing in “Life For Me”: “Why does it feel like I’m missing something?” she asks, over one of the album’s loveliest arrangements, featuring springy, twinkling African soukous guitar.

It’s a fine line between one celebrity’s Twitterrhoea and another’s honest confessional, though, and to her credit Lily Allen tries to confront head-on some things that actually matter, rather than just litter the world with more insignificant chaff. The single “Hard Out Here”, for instance, is a feisty feminist anthem, assertive and hard-headed, while “URL Badman” flames trolling bloggers hiding behind their screens, Lily returning the venom they displayed when dumping on her for condemning music piracy, but with rather more wit and style. Clearly, she’s not about to be cowed by cowards.

Musically, Lily and main producer Greg Kurstin have devised a light, fashion-free range of arrangements which carefully avoid the standard electro-disco settings favoured by Katy, Kylie, Gaga and Ri-Ri and emphasising the primacy of her lyrical content, rather than, as in their cases, disguising its thinness.

Only the party anthem “Our Time” buys fully into the disco-pop mode, with “L8 CMMR” using a light, skittish dancehall-pop groove that’s both subtler and sleeker than the usual brutalist beats. But none of her contemporaries could carry off the G-funk and African influences she employs, and certainly not the cajun R&B groove of “As Long As I Got You”, a sort of Bayou Diddley tribute to her hubby, set to accordion and wispy slide guitar.

It’s this diversity that clinches the album’s success, confirming that this is an artist with taste and opinions of her own, not just a schedule and a fanbase to satisfy.

Tuesday, 20 May 2014

Norway's Röyksopp & Sweden's Robyn have teamed up to release a five track mini-album Do It Again. The press release for the album describes one of the tracks "Sayit" as sounding like... 'a near duet between Robyn and what sounds like an aroused robot' and that's good enough for me. RöRo have released the title track as a single and it's certainly got me fairly aroused - check it out in the video above (the track, not my arousal unfortunately).

BTW - the Zoo Station Remix of the track is also amazing - I've posted the radio edit below.

p.s. They should definitely have called themselves RöRo, don't you think?

Have a shot of three previous Fine Tuner postings of Robyn by clicking on the link:

American Hip Hop act Jurassic 5 released the classic "Concrete Schoolyard" from their debut, self-titled album back in 1998. It samples "Getting Nasty" by Ike Turner & the Kings of Rhythm, "Summer Breeze" by Ramsey Lewis, "Cosmic Force" by Don Sebesky, "Stoop Rap" by Wild Style, and "Freedom" by Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five.

British DJ and producer Ben Pearce originally released brilliant deep house track "What I Might Do" in 2013. It samples the American R&B singer Anthony Hamilton's vocals from his 2003 track "Cornbread, Fish and Collard Greens".

Click here for the full blog

Tune in

discosoulfunkpopandotherfinetunes

Discerning and distinctive - The Fine Tuner aims to be your musical dilettante, bringing you a broad church of aural delight with no other common thread than my thinking that each and every track is really rather splendid.

Search my blog (or click on an artist's link in the cloud at the bottom of this column)

Soundcloud

Click on the link above

Follow by Email (Sign up to receive new post alerts)

Email me

Click on the email address above to ask me anything, comment on the blog or the music, or to alert me to music I should post. Or why not comment via the link below each post. If you're the first to do so then click where it says 'No comments'.

The Fine Tuner

Welcome to The Fine Tuner

Hi,

I thought it might be fun for me and hopefully enjoyable for some of you out there in speakers and headphones land if I shared with you some of the music I love. I have a large collection of music, lovingly compiled over many years. Music is very important to me and has sustained me through hard times, soundtracked me through good times, and overall brought measures of glitter, ecstasy and balm to my life whenever I needed to feel euphoric, dance, hang out, heal my heart, pretend I was famous, or just drift away in a warm soulful groove.

It's elusive call it glitter

Somehow something turns me on

This is not a genre blog - I'll be posting all types of music. Through time you'll work out if you share my tastes, or perhaps you'll learn to appreciate them a little. We all have different tastes but hopefully can respect our differing choices in music and life.

Some folks only see the litter

We don't miss them when they're gone

I love being on my own listening to music - at home with earphones on and the rest of the world subdued, or in my car on a long journey with a killer playlist. That said, there's also something wonderful in being around people who appreciate or love the same music that I do. I hope that might now include you.

I think I have a bit of a man crush on this Cosmo chap. The video above is for "Love This" and below is "Gay Pirates&quot...

Translate

Privacy Policy

This blog does not share personal information with third parties nor do we store any information about your visit to this blog other than to analyze and optimize your content and reading experience through the use of cookies.

You can turn off the use of cookies at anytime by changing your specific browser settings.

We are not responsible for republished content from this blog on other blogs or websites without our permission.

This privacy policy is subject to change without notice and was last updated on 27th May, 2013. If you have any questions feel free to contact me directly here: thefinetuner@outlook.com